Travel to South America

Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle

Format: Paperback
Author: Moritz Thomsen
ReleaseDate: May, 1997
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Rating:

Peace Corps Experience
Thomson's on the surface. My Peace Corps experience was quite different from Mr. I went to an Arabic country in Africa as opposed to a South American Country. I was in my 20s as opposed to late 40s. My training was in country and quite different. I was a teacher instead of a farmer and lived in a large metropolitan city.

However, having said all that there were several times I thought"Whoa!" this is exactly what happened to me! And this is something that no non-PCV would ever understand.

For example, he described the emotional feeling he had from living in Equador similar to the feeling of first falling in love except that this feeling was constant. I had that feeling about Morocco and I STILL have it to this day 30 years later.

He doesn't sugar coat the experience either and describes the hardships of which there were many. Underlying these descriptions were a message that they made him a better person. Ah, how I can relate.

Excellent book and I highly recommend it.

Master writer, big heart, great humor, old shoe, the real thing...
This remains one of my favorite books of all time. . it's survived four library donations in the past 30 years. . .

Tried to find Thomsen before he died, unfortunately could not. . . not sure he ever knew he was a great author. . . hope others got to him with that snippet of info and that he died happy. . .

He nailed the peace corps. . . gave it the best it ever had from any of us. . . i love the man and wish we had more like him. . .

.

His other one is good too...
" Where 'Living Poor' sounds like it has more of an ex-pat spin on it, "The Farm" focuses more on his on personal experiences, observations, and self-questioning in running a farm with his Ecuadorian business partner, Ramon. I'm in the process of getting my hands on Living Poor, but also highly recommend Thomsen's book "The Farm on the River of Emeralds. Very interesting.

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